THE BIG SHUT DOWN!

By Edwin Cooney

I think I know some of the fundamental causes as to why "the greatest nation in the world" is shutting down! Sadly, we of the land of the free and the home of the brave are just plain scared — due to a lack of national leadership. Even more, the well off among us are just as frightened as we “peasants!”

Even as our president, as late as last Wednesday, was minimizing our national plight, those among his most ardent followers, owners of sports franchises, of airlines, of hotels, were suspending almost every enterprise designed to bring them maximum profits. They were closing down "March Madness," suspending the remainder of the professional basketball and hockey seasons, and suspending baseball spring training as well as the scheduled March 26th baseball season opening. Airlines are now cancelling flights, foreign or domestic — which is as it should be. Schools and colleges are closing and sending students home.

This national tragedy extends beyond mere partisan politics. It reflects in some significant ways how we have become who we are today. The factors I've just cited are symptoms of a national crisis, not the cause of it!

There are oodles of good things about us that we forget at our peril including our creativity and our charitable organizations and institutions as well as our civil, spiritual, and political liberties.

Our fundamental flaw lies in our expectation that we ought to be able to control our individual lives and fates. Given our advancements in science and technology, this explanation is fairly understandable. This understandability only intensifies the panic, fear and anger when something like the Coronavirus confronts us.

Additionally, we Americans expect to be taken care of, not only by the government, but also by the private market. We expect private manufacturers and other businesses to guarantee safe working conditions. We expect merchants to protect us from secondhand smoke. We insist that the quality of a product be guaranteed to extend over a reasonable period of time after purchase. These constitute only a few social expectations we have of private enterprise. In fact, many public safety requirements were viciously resisted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by well-healed entrepreneurs.

The two most frightening aspects of this national crisis are that the symptoms at the outset are usually quite mild and up to now testing tools have been in short supply. (From what I've learned, a number of countries that have socialized medicine such as Australia have no shortage of testing materials.)

Secondly, uncertainty as to how to minimize the likelihood of coming down with the virus is what most affects the smooth operation of our society and the culture that drives what we dare to do.

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this crisis is now it could even affect the outcome of the 2020 national election. Socio/political observers continuously point out that the three men in line to be president in January of 2021 are "old white males." The fact is that since "old white males" are the most vulnerable group to contract the disease, the Coronavirus could conceivably decide who might not be elected President of the United States of America next November.

Insofar as I'm aware, I have little or no fear of the virus for myself, although I am apprehensive about the health and well-being of people I highly regard and love. In fact, perhaps the real bottom line for most of us is fear for the health and well-being of those we love. Fear, as I often assert, is the father of anger — both personal and national. Additionally, we can identify a number of occasions throughout human history when pandemic diseases have had a direct effect on the state and even on the course of nations.

The Bubonic Plague (or the “Black Death” as it was better known) had a direct effect on the history of fourteenth and fifteenth century England to the extent that it dictated the royal succession and brought about the infamous Wars of the Roses between the Lancaster and the York families. (Had the Lancasters not ultimately prevailed, there would have been no Henry the Eighth and, perhaps more significantly, no break with the Catholic Church and thus none of the disasters and deaths that resulted from that historic event.)

The Spanish Flu of 1918 is said to have affected the health and mental stability of President Woodrow Wilson during the 1919 Paris Peace conference. A number of witnesses to that conference insist that following a bout with the flu, President Wilson's mood or temperament affected his willingness to compromise both during and after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. (While these two instances aren't conclusive causes of events, they demonstrate very significant speculative historic causes and effects of history.)

The cancellation of significant social, economic, and cultural events are more than likely to alter socio/political and cultural outcomes in the near future. One of the most likely outcomes is the degree to which we have a change in what we expect of our national political leadership. No reasonable person can blame President Trump for the outbreak of the Coronavirus, but he appears to have dismantled an important department, thereby cutting down the capacity of the government to protect us from the ravages of disease. For many, the president has been more interested in government efficiency than in addressing our safety and welfare. His characterization of the virus as a "foreign virus” is, of course nonsense, but it appeals to the fears and prejudices of his constituency. Viruses speak neither Chinese nor “American," but so long as they originate from abroad, they can be labeled as foreign as royalty or communism. President Trump's message of last Wednesday night was both political and self-congratulatory which is nothing new! Nor was it designed to calm an anxious America. Some wonder why President Trump was willing to declare a national emergency over the non-construction of his border wall, but until last Friday resisted declaring a national emergency for the Coronavirus.

You may not have imagined that you would be a witness, let alone a possible part of a dramatic historic event, but what we are about to experience may be more significant than even 9/11.

Writing in the New York Times on Saturday, March 14th, Dr. David A. Kessler welcomed President Trump's appointment of Brett Giroir as Assistant Secretary of Health to coordinate the speeding up and implementation of the use of badly needed test kits. According to Dr. Kessler, this process could be done in seven days. (Dr. Kessler, MD is a professor of epidemiology, biostatistics and pediatrics at the University of San Fransisco.) His article outlines the structure as well as the activities of organizations within that structure which he insists can install our badly needed Coronavirus testing capacity in a week's time. How long it will take for the testing system to take effect, Dr. Kessler does not address.

I think it's important to remember that "promoting the general welfare" of the nation was as important as the other four reasons to our Founding Fathers when they created the Constitution in 1787! Failure to lead when the path is uncertain is a failure of leadership! Assuming that you, I, and those closest to us survive the physical effects of the Coronavirus, our more sensitive outlooks, attitudes and expectations for each other's well-being may be its only positive, but most powerful, significant legacy.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY